Commentary Inf III 24

This first instance of Dante's weeping is part of a program of the protagonist's development in hell, in which he (very) gradually overcomes the twin temptations to weep for or feel fear at the situation of the sinners in Inferno. See R. Hollander (Holl.1969.1), pp. 301-307. In the harsh moral code of the text, sympathy for the damned is always misplaced (see the introductory lecture on the moral situation of the reader [Moral ]), if a certain admiration for some of their better qualities is allowed.